Living Architecture: This organization is taking aim at Britons' affection for traditional styles of architecture by commissioning architects to create unusual modern holiday rental homes in England. Its creative director (and a founding member) is Alain de Botton, author of "The Architecture of Happiness," among other works -- and also an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects. In a couple of articles in the Telegraph, he discusses Living Architecture's purpose -- "Our dream was to allow people to experience what it is like to live and sleep in a space designed by an outstanding architectural practice" -- and introduces their holiday properties. The photos of them are a treat.

Take the Balancing Barn, in Suffolk, for instance. Half of the 30-meter-long building cantilevers out over the slope, resting on air. Or the House for Essex (under development), which de Botton says is "designed to evoke a tradition of wayside and pilgrimage chapels." Or the Shingle House, a simple, dramatic structure clad in tarred black shingles and located on a shingle beach that’s a nature reserve. You can read about all the houses and see many photos of each at Living Architecture's website.

Thinking about Sandy: Whether you're thinking about Superstorm Sandy or climate change -- or both at once -- the world seems like an unstable place. Architizer offers up "Noah's Architecture: The Futuristic Designs That Will Save Us From The Next Sandy" -- such as the Citadel in the Netherlands, which it says will be "Europe's first floating apartment complex":

Part of a 1,200-house urban development called New Water in the city of Westland, the project will push beyond the country's usual relationship with its excess water--constant pumping--and intentionally flood the site.

The apartments will be built from 180 modules surrounding a courtyard that will be anchored on a concrete caisson foundation. Like the luxury watercraft it actually kind of is, the 60-unit Citadel will rise and fall with the water, offering its residents wetland views and berths for small boats.

Floating architecture: With renewed attention to the problem of rising sea levels, it's worth looking back at PBS' story and photo essay last May on floating architecture:

"In the last decade, floating architecture changed from a fringe niche market into a realistic opportunity for expanding the urban fabric beyond the waterfront," said Koen Olthuis, lead architect at Waterstudio.NL, an aqua-architectural firm in the Netherlands. For Olthuis, creating floating buildings goes beyond architecture and is about a new vision for city planning.

Rather than putting entire cities on water, most of the proposals today combine water-based buildings with land-based architecture protected against water using flotation fixtures, raised platforms or anchored structures. That kind of flexible, integrated approach is crucial for the future, said Olthuis.

"Instead of buildings that are not able to cope with the changing needs of a city, urban planners will start creating floating dynamic developments that can react to new and unforeseen changes."

In an NPR story from 2008, "Dutch architects prepare for a floating future," a reporter tours a float-ready house with the homeowner:

But then I make an odd tour request. I ask her if I can see her home's foundation. Luckily, she's happy to oblige. She leads us downstairs.

"This is underwater," she says when we get there. We are in an enclosed basement with a low ceiling, and the Maas River is all around us. I mean, you poke a hole, and you're going to have water come in.

You see, Smits' foundation actually sits on the river bottom. If the river level rises to flood stage, the house and the foundation float up with the water level. Flexible pipes keep the house connected to electrical and sewer lines.

(A) floating house which, as the name suggests, sits permanently on the water like a boat; and an amphibious house that stands on dry land but, in the event of floods, is able to rise with the water.

Both employ a large hollow concrete cube at their base to provide buoyancy, and are "moored" in pairs to huge steel piles to keep them anchored in one place, the piles enabling them to withstand currents as strong as you would find on the open seas.

Water and electricity are brought in through flexible pipes that have been adapted to bend and move with the swell of the water.

But floating or float-ready houses are not the only kind that can resist floods:

Dura Vermeer is also developing what they term "dry-proof" and "wet-proof" houses, the former designed to prevent water intrusion, the latter to actually allow it.

"The idea with wet-proof houses is that all the essential rooms -- living room, kitchen, bedroom – are on the upper floors," explains (Dura Vermeer spokesman Johan) van der Pol.

"In the event of a flood you open the doors and allow the water to enter the non- essential lower rooms, which have been specially designed to resist water damage, with waterproof plaster and specially adapted electrics and plumbing.

"It is how houses in Holland always used to be built."

Britain's first amphibious house, being built in 2012 on the banks of the Thames in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, is designed with three terraces stepping down to the river. The bottom terrace will be planted with thirsty reeds and shrubs. Unlike a flood wall, the terraces will allow the owners to see when the water is rising, according to the Daily Mail.

Off-grid series: A five-part series on AOL.com discusses the growing off-grid trend, and features four fascinating communities: Canada's Lasqueti Island; New Mexico's Earthship homes; a Costa Rican treehouse village called Finca Bellavista, with walkways strung between trees (don't miss this one); and Missouri's Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage. It's quite a spectrum.

Perishable art: What food could better express the fragility and shakiness of buildings in an earthquake zone than Jell-O?

The Oregonian/2005Jim Grandy of Brush Prairie, Wash., who does business as The Bamboo Man, dusts off his project with a garden hose.

Bamboo houses: Bamboo is one of the world's most amazing and versatile plants for construction. Inhabitat features three new houses in Bali's all-bamboo Green Village that illustrate the beauty and utility of bamboo. Green Village's website has a photo gallery, plus another under "Design." They're built by Ibuku, whose website also is worth perusing for the photo galleries -- one for architecture, another for interiors, and one for bamboo as building material.

If you're interested in bamboo as a sustainable material for building, or just love the look of it, you could happily spend a lot of time here.